Author: Chris Bae, Email: baeh5@unlv.nevada.edu
Date Last Modified: 12/02/2024

I was invited to a friend's house for dinner during Thanksgiving, the biggest holiday in America. I got to try the turkey that I had only heard about before. I’m really grateful to my friend for inviting me to join their family celebration, especially since I’m from another country. My friends, who are also my roommates, always take great care of me and try to be thoughtful. I’m thankful for that. Now that there isn’t much time left before I return to Korea, I want to make many more memories with my friends in the remaining days. Also, I’ve realized that when I go back to Korea and meet someone from another country, I want to be the one to reach out and take care of them. Just starting a conversation can be a big source of support.

I met my friend's dad at their house. My friend had previously told me that her dad had served in the military in Korea for a short time, so I was curious to meet him. We spent some time talking about Korea. He mentioned that he served in the military in Korea in the 1990s, and we discussed the differences between Korea back then and now. Hearing his stories made me realize that although Korea has changed a lot, the overall atmosphere seems to have stayed the same. I also felt grateful to my friend's dad for serving in the military for Korea, even if it was only for a short time.

The day after Thanksgiving, I went to the outlet mall for Black Friday, which is known for offering the biggest discounts of the year. I was expecting huge savings, but I quickly realized that the discounts weren’t as big as I had hoped. It seems like the concept of Black Friday is no longer what it used to be. At the outlets, the items are typically tagged with a discounted price from the original price. However, the items for Black Friday had the original price listed on the price tag, and you could buy them at a discounted price from there. They advertise a big discount percentage to attract shoppers, but when you compare the prices, they were pretty much the same as regular days. I realized that the actual discount wasn’t as significant as I expected, and it made me wonder if the whole Black Friday hype is just a marketing strategy now.

I’ve realized that going to the gym has become a part of my daily routine. When I first started working out, I went to the gym out of a sense of obligation, but now I go because I want to. When the gym was closed for three days during the Thanksgiving holiday, I really felt the urge to work out and couldn’t wait to get back. I’m happy that self-care through exercise has become a fixed part of my life. The school gym has great facilities, which makes it easier to stay motivated and get a good workout. Also, when I go to the gym, I see many people with great physiques and seeing them motivates me in a positive way to push myself harder. In the past, I used the excuse of not having enough time to neglect my workouts, but now I’ve decided that even after I return to Korea, I want to continue working out as consistently as I have been here.

I applied the inverted pendulum model to the cart-pole example in Isaac Gym and started training it. Compared to the original example, the cart could move only a short distance, and the pole was longer, which required more training to balance the pole stably. I experimented with adjusting the coefficients of the reward function during the learning process and planned to analyze the results. Additionally, I will apply the trained model to a real-world system in the next steps.